With more modern web browsers in use today(IE does NOT apply to my definition of this), popup windows operate entirely different from how they used to. Popups now mostly pop up in new tabs, or if it’s an all encompassing browser such as Opera, it just pops over the same page but within the same browser window. All of that change aside, I can’t quite fathom why designers for companies use them RIGHT after we choose a site location.

Let me clarify by example: Today I got a Canon Canoscan 8600F shipped to me for a review and needed to go download the most recent drivers. I visit Canon.com where I am presented a few options: Access to worldwide sites, country specific sites(chosen via a nice little map) and access to their press releases. So naturally I click on the United States and there it is, a popup! WHY would you use a _blank target for this? Furthermore, the website doesn’t remember my selection.

An improved example of the SAME scenario is Craigslist. When you visit craigslist for the first time it asks for your location and from then on(or until you delete that cookie) it takes you to the listings of your chosen city. Brilliant. I think something scary happened to the world of computing in the 90′s. You know, back when floppy disks were still the largest portable file type? People were extremely limited on data storage resources and since then have been brainwashed to believe that deleting cookies is an essential step to keeping your computer tidy. Now just about everything people believe about web browsing has some truth to it so I’m not ruling that out as something you should never do, but with that belief attached another sub belief that “Cookies are evil” What is wrong with everyone? Well another guilty offender to this situation is our beloved Wikipedia. Is it that hard to install a cookie automatically to remember your language each visit?

Wikipedia is forgiven because it is a small offense, but what about sites, like my first example, that use popups?

First my firefox popup blocker swatted that annoying popup saying “BAD CANON, BAD!” But also notified me of the thwarted attempt. Unfortunately, the content of this popup is actually what I was looking for so I allowed it. But I’m still failing to see why they made it a popup as opposed to taking me where I requested to go? I know I am just complaining about small unimportant things here, but come on. And they aren’t the only people that do this. Is there some great analytics benefit to doing this? Do they need that pop up for an increase in per-visit rankings? Do they need the extra exit link from their homepage? Are they otherwise incapable of tracking you globally? I know these aren’t the cases, so why?